Diana and Actaeon

This particulary impressive example of De Bisschop’s wash drawings was undoubtedly made after a painting by Cornelis de Bisschop, by whom several renderings of the myth of Diana and Actaeon are still known (N. Sluijter-Seijffert, Cornelis van Poelenburch, 1594/5-1667. The Paintings, [Amsterdam] 2016, nos. 113-1161, ill.). Already in the seventeenth century, collectors highly valued De Bisschop’s copies after paintings, which he may have made with the idea to reproduce them in print (R.E. Jellema and M. Plomp, Episcopius. Jan de Bisschop (1628-1671). Advocaat en tekenaar/Lawyer and Draughtsman, cat. exh. Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 1993, pp. 38-39). Other copies by De Bisschop after Van Poelenburch survive at Teylers Museum, Haarlem (ibid., no. 26, ill.), and the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (inv. D 1478).